Women and Chemicals

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Where are women exposed to chemicals? 30,000 women pesticide sprayers in Malaysia alone that spray pesticides, and frequently highly toxic ones like paraquat, on an average of 262 days per year. Eighty per cent of the spraying is carried out with leaky hand-held equipment. An incentive of extra 50 cents per day is enough to encourage these impoverished women to spray. Even if they do not directly apply the pesticides, women work and raise their children in a toxic environment. They mix pesticides, weed while pesticides are being applied, wash out pesticide containers, or harvest pesticidedoused crops. They wash pesticide-soaked clothing and store pesticides in their homes.” 26 Female farmers and workers in agriculture very often do not know what kind of pesticides and chemicals they deal with and how dangerous they are for their own and their children’s health. Often they are less educated and less informed than men, so they have greater difficulties in understanding warning instructions and labels. Since many of the health problems occur later in life many women are unlikely to connect them to their chemical exposure. As a result, many diseases caused by exposure to hazardous chemicals stay undetected. Rural women’s access to information is very much needed, as well as stricter laws protecting rural workers from hazardous chemicals. 34
Where are women exposed to chemicals? Example: African Horticulture 34 Since two decades, the industry of horticulture and floriculture is becoming a huge working field for East Africans due to the demand of the European market. While food safety is observed very strictly, the working conditions of the field workers is not the interest of European companies. The workers, a lot of them women, suffer from various working conditions, e.g. extremely low pay rates, absence of contracts, forced overtime, sexual harassments and poor health and safety conditions. In Uganda for example, 227 pesticides are used in horticulture, some of them are even banned and highly toxic. In most of the farms, the workers do not get any training or awareness raising on pesticide hazards and appropriate behavior to avoid the direct exposure to these toxic chemicals. Some of the workers even were unaware of their toxic workplace and the long-term effects pesticides could cause on their health. A lot of farms do not provide their workers provision of appropriate personal protective equipment, which is an absolute prerequisite for anyone handling pesticides. The lack of boots and gloves is a high risk for workers in making them vulnerable to chemical penetration through the skin. From exposure of pesticides, chemical poisoning is not an exception in the daily life of the workers. Common disorders are miscarriages and irregular menstrual flow, skin irritation and burns, as well as upper respiratory tract problems. A survey of female rice farmers in Thailand found that women lack basic training in handling pesticides. Their husbands, who were skilled using pesticides had left the country in search for work, and their wives had to take over in the fields. Despite the negative consequences for their health, they were not willing to participate in training courses because of conflicting caring and housework commitments. 27 A USAID training programme in Papua New Guinea failed for the same reasons. They did not consider women’s family responsibilities, because the programmes were arranged as three full-day trainings away from the villages. Women found it difficult to travel and find arrangements for child care. 28 Surveys have shown that highly hazardous pesticides are in widespread use, in unsafe conditions exposing and poisoning the environment and the people. As stated in UNEP’s Global Chemicals Outlook, the estimated costs of poisonings from Example: Women working in greenhouse/flower production Female workers in greenhouses are exposed to a lot of pesticides, including pesticides, which are influencing the hormone system. Bretveld 35 compared in her study 8 000 workers to a control group with 8 000 non-exposed workers and could show that fulltime female workers who were exposed to pesticides needed longer to get pregnant. Their fertility was rated by the “TTP-factor”, the “time to pregnancy-factor” which states the time period from the point when the woman wants to get pregnant until she gets pregnant. The possibility of getting pregnant was 10 per cent lower for the female workers and 30 per cent lower for the partners of men working in greenhouses. Also the risk of getting a miscarriage is double. 36 pesticides in sub-Saharan Africa now exceed the total annual overseas development aid given to the region for basic health services, excluding HIV/AIDS. Between 2005 and 2020, the accumulated cost of illness and injury linked to pesticides in small-scale farming in sub-Saharan Africa could reach USD $90 billion. The International Code on Pesticide Management states that “pesticides whose handling and application require the use of personal protective equipment that is uncomfortable, expensive or not readily available should be avoided, especially in the case of small-scale users and farm workers in hot climates.” 29 In such countries, the responsible regulatory approach should be to prohibit the import and use of HHPs and to help farmers identify effective, less hazardous alternatives. However, countries are often unaware of safer alternatives. There is even a lack of initiative on which HHPs should be prioritized for prohibition and substitution. Acute exposure to pesticides can lead to death or serious illness. 30 Long-term exposure to pesticides can increase the risk of developmental and reproductive disorders, immune system disruption, endocrine disruption, impaired nervous system function, and development of certain cancers. Women are more susceptible to pesticides than men. They absorb pesticides through their skin more easily than men. For example, dermal absorption of the organochlorine lindane is three times greater for women than for men. 31 Pesticides also reside longer in female bodies than in males. 32 Women are more vulnerable to endocrine disrupting ac- 35
Page 1 and 2: Women and Chemicals The impact of h
Page 3 and 4: Women and Chemicals The impact of h
Page 5 and 6: 1 Summary 6 5 Women as agents of ch
Page 7 and 8: Summary mented by governments. UNEP
Page 9 and 10: WOMEN CAN BE KEY AGENTS OF CHANGE W
Page 11 and 12: Why women? Gender and other social
Page 13 and 14: Why women? laws, practices, attitud
Page 15 and 16: Why women? Endnotes chapter 2 1 Rio
Page 17 and 18: Women’s health under threat Typic
Page 19 and 20: Women’s health under threat Some
Page 21 and 22: Women’s health under threat Chemi
Page 23 and 24: Women’s health under threat Endno
Page 25 and 26: Where are women exposed to chemical
Page 33: Where are women exposed to chemical
Page 47 and 48: Woman a agents of change less, if I
Page 49 and 50: What are the main harmful substance
Page 55 and 56: 55
Page 57 and 58: Existing initiatives Important prop
Page 59 and 60: Existing initiatives SAICM Ind. No.
Page 61 and 62: Conclusions and recommendations Dur
Page 63 and 64: Bibliography Bibliography Apelberg,
Page 65 and 66: Abbreviations ASGM Artisanal and sm

Women and Chemicals

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